Marijuana (cannabis): Good or bad?

According to the National Institutes of Health, people have used marijuana, or cannabis, to treat their ailments for at least 3,000 years. However, the Food and Drug Administration have not deemed cannabis safe or effective in the treatment of any medical condition, although cannabidiol, a substance that is present in cannabis, received approval in June 2018 as a treatment for some types of epilepsy.

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This tension, between a widespread belief that cannabis is an effective treatment for a wide assortment of ailments and a lack of scientific knowledge on its effects, has been somewhat exacerbated in recent times by a drive toward legalization.

Twenty-nine states plus the District of Columbia have now made cannabis available for medical — and, in some states, recreational — purposes.

A recent studyTrusted Source published in the journal Addiction also found that use of cannabis is increasing sharply across the United States, although this rise may not be linked to the legalization of cannabis in participating states. Nevertheless, this rise in use is prompting major public health concerns.

In this article, we look at the scientific evidence weighing the medical benefits of cannabis against its associated health risks in an attempt to answer this simple question: is cannabis good or bad?